This is somewhat intended. They are a more "official" (for lack of a better term) version of TNT cannons, but are costly and provide less control than TNT cannons.
Understood. My main point is that they're incredibly simpler and easier-to-use, but advanced players might prefer TNT cannons instead. But given my knowledge, the average player would definitively prefer cannons over TNT cannons.

Though I still think that the cost for cannonballs may be a little cheap.

And I just realized that cannons are actually not too different from dispensers with fire charges, though definitely cheaper, simpler, and with better accuracy.

I don't mean to sound rude, but you are incorrect. Once you mine deep enough, redstone is actually very common; it's also abundant in that you get more than one piece of dust per ore. Sand also doesn't require a desert at all; you can find it in pretty much any pond, beach, or river bank. Your argument with gunpowder is also fallacious; not only are creepers quite common, but cannons require gunpowder just like TNT cannons do. (Just not as much.)
Thanks for clarifying, and you're correct. Last bit I don't understand is why you say that cannons require gunpowder (don't the crafting recipes for cannons/cannonballs only need iron and/or flint & steel?).

It really depends on the type of player. Surprisingly, a lot of players don't actually keep a large supplies of iron.
Fair enough. I am basing a lot of this off of my own experience, which I really shouldn't be doing.

This is exactly what I imagined. The mining speed? Probably twice that of an anvil.
By twice the mining speed, it'll be mined faster, correct? That'll still take longer than many blocks, but it would help to negate the fact that it can't be "aimed" because a player could place it, fire, mine it, and place it again.

To be honest I kind of assumed that not mentioning cannons being aimable would be enough for people to know that you don't aim them, but like I said above I will add more to the post.
I've always thought of cannons being aimed. Maybe it's just me. I'll check out the new additions once they're posted.

And? There's always going to be benefits to playing with more than one person.
Yes, but a problem with adding a ship to vanilla Minecraft may be that a larger ship (one similar to a pirate ship or merchant ship's size) will basically necessitate multiple players in order to be in any way efficient at all. Of course multiple players would work better, but in this case it would seem like ships capable of engaging pirate ships in cannon combat would be specifically designed against singleplayer. It'd be like adding large Minecarts with several individual controls that would require multiple people to operate efficiently.

This isn't really a good argument. There will always be people who build stupid-looking or objectionable things. You have made a good point that the shape of the hull of the ship should also have an effect on the speed, so I'll add this to the post as well.
Good point. I can't think of anything to refute this. At best, I can say that it personally irks me to see irregular-shaped junk with cannons floating around, but it's a sandbox game, so I'll stay quiet.

This is kind of a given: "Terrain" blocks (dirt, gravel, stone, sand, clay, grass, ores, etc.) will not be counted as part of the ship unless they are placed on the ship. This prevents the ship from moving a whole continent. It also means, though, that you will need to have a space between your dock and your ship.
Then you'd need to build your ship over water (a little risky with the new Drowned mobs). All other blocks will be counted as part of the ship, and then any blocks on top of those other blocks would also be incorporated? And, this might also be a given, you'd be able to remove blocks from your ship or add other blocks by simply mining or placing them onto the existing ship entity?

We have a large disagreement on whether cannons would be balanced. I think I'll make a model for the cannons (just like I did with the helm) and add more to the post.
Please do.

Alright, I updated the post. I've tweaked a few things (such as crafting recipes) and I've added a model for the cannon along with a texture for the cannonball. I've also provided more detail for how the cannon would function.

Cool. I'll check it out now.

Okay. First of all, nice editing.

Second of all, no offense, but I hope that an official cannon model would have a more appealing design, though I understand that you're just making a rough model to show the basic features.

Alright. The reload speed seems fair enough to me. The new crafting recipe for the cannon is pretty nice. I see that you removed the Flint and Steel (is there a reason that the player model is holding one?).

Will cannons have a durability, either? Or will they, like dispensers, function forever?

Second of all, no offense, but I hope that an official cannon model would have a more appealing design, though I understand that you're just making a rough model to show the basic features. Okay, that's fair. If this were to actually be in-game there would probably also be a wooden part to it like with real life cannons.

Alright. The reload speed seems fair enough to me. The new crafting recipe for the cannon is pretty nice. I see that you removed the Flint and Steel (is there a reason that the player model is holding one?). I think you should reread the cannon section of the post; I've changed it. One of the things I changed is that now to fire the cannon you right-click on it with a flint & steel. You also might check out the "Technical Stuff" section, as I've added more information on the pirate ships in that part.

Will cannons have a durability, either? Or will they, like dispensers, function forever?

This is a good question that I will address in the post. It would probably be somewhere in-between.

And the projectile speed will be similar to that of a dispensed fire charge?

Yes.

Thanks for clarifying, and you're correct. Last bit I don't understand is why you say that cannons require gunpowder (don't the crafting recipes for cannons/cannonballs only need iron and/or flint & steel?).

You are right that the crafting recipes only require iron. However, as I've specified in the paragraph(s) next to the cannon picture and recipe, you have to fill up the cannon with gunpowder before firing, similar to how you can fill up a cauldron with water.

Responses in bold.

Thank you for pointing out that I haven't talked about cannonball accuracy. I'll add that to the post tomorrow along with an additional factor in ship speed (the shape of the ship's hull).

I've also changed the explosion power of cannonballs from that of TNT (level 4) to that of a ghast fireball (level 1). This is noted in the "Technical Stuff" section.

I think you should reread the cannon section of the post; I've changed it. One of the things I changed is that now to fire the cannon you right-click on it with a flint & steel. You also might check out the "Technical Stuff" section, as I've added more information on the pirate ships in that part.

Ah, I see. Good design. I assume that the Flint & Steel's durability will also be used up like normal.

They will be like dispensers and have no durability.

Gotcha.

Yes.

If I recall correctly, a dispensed fire charge has a somewhat slow speed. Maybe speed up cannonballs a bit so they still look more like fired cannonballs than slow fireballs, but still not so much that they become too strong.

You are right that the crafting recipes only require iron. However, as I've specified in the paragraph(s) next to the cannon picture and recipe, you have to fill up the cannon with gunpowder before firing, similar to how you can fill up a cauldron with water.

I see. Will gunpowder be used up at the same time as cannonballs?

Thank you for pointing out that I haven't talked about cannonball accuracy. I'll add that to the post tomorrow along with an additional factor in ship speed (the shape of the ship's hull).

Excellent.

I've also changed the explosion power of cannonballs from that of TNT (level 4) to that of a ghast fireball (level 1). This is noted in the "Technical Stuff" section.

That link is to my vanilla generated Minecraft Server world's map. There are no ocean. They are all technically salty lakes. Sailing a 5000 blocked ship in so many landlocked lakes create a lot of inefficiencies. If you plan on traveling thousands of kilometers like Columbus in a naturally generated world, you're gonna have a lot of fun digging thousands of Panama Canals.

Pirates.

I love the pirate idea, and I love the idea of sea warfare with cannons. But isn't raiding an entire pirate ship with golems and pirates all by yourself a little too weird? To fix this, you should add mercenaries. They should spawn in villages and they should look like Steve. You can hire a mercenary by paying him a handsome amount of emeralds and you can hand him some equipment and assign it to guard a place. These comrades could then be brought on a ship as sailors. They can get experience and their combat skill will improve the longer they live. Another solution is to be able to put a bed on the ship. You could just respawn every time you die in an invasion on the ship. When you give up, you can just destroy the bed and abandon ship and spawn at the world spawn.

Another idea that could go along with this pirate theme would be the addition of new weapons. The swords already in minecraft are intended for knights, as they usually only carry swords that are straight and could be used for stabbing. The new kinds of swords I suggest would be cutlasses, the ones pirate use are curved and usually one sided. These cutlasses very good at being drawn and used for slashing. Because of this, cutlasses should deal high damage and able to damage multiple mobs at once, but at the expense of taking a while to charge up. This weapon would have the same enchantments as a regular sword. Another type of weapons that could be added along would be very early firearms. Since pirate captains carry pistols, we should also add it into Minecraft. Pistols would have to be obtained by killing pirate captains, which should be hard, as it took 20 cuts and 5 shots to kill Blackbeard. This new pistol weapon could then be loaded with gunpowder and a nugget and stored in inventory for later use. When used it should take 3 shots to kill a player at the effective range of 10 blocks, regardless of the amount or quality of armor on the player or mob. The reload time should take 10 seconds, more than long enough for a swordsman to kill you without resisting. To nerf it, it should not be able to fire in water. Another weapon that could be added would be a musket. A musket is only obtained by finding it in a buried treasure in a pirate cove with a 1 in 10 chance of generating with a musket. It will have an effective range of 20 blocks and it will be able to kill a player regardless of armor with 2 hits. Unlike the pistol, it will require 20 seconds to reload and a craftable item called a reloading rod with durability to reload. Like the pistol it will also use gunpowder and a nugget and will not fire underwater. These weapons would be enchanted with rifling, which improves accuracy, power, and piercing, which allows bullet to go through multiple mobs.

Another mechanic to add would be warfare with cannon. A cannon will fire the projectile like you described and explode, destroying the surrounding blocks based on blast resistance. It will have a 1 in 5 chance to set fire on the surrounding blocks, making it easier to destroy a wooden ship if not managed carefully.

That link is to my vanilla generated Minecraft Server world's map. There are no ocean. They are all technically salty lakes. Sailing a 5000 blocked ship in so many landlocked lakes create a lot of inefficiencies. If you plan on traveling thousands of kilometers like Columbus in a naturally generated world, you're gonna have a lot of fun digging thousands of Panama Canals.

This suggestion is actually Part 3 of a 3-part suggestion series. Part 1 focused on making the ocean larger, and Part 2 focused on ocean life. With these changes in place, ships are actually quite practical because there are actual oceans and not just lakes.

I love the pirate idea, and I love the idea of sea warfare with cannons. But isn't raiding an entire pirate ship with golems and pirates all by yourself a little too weird? To fix this, you should add mercenaries. They should spawn in villages and they should look like Steve. You can hire a mercenary by paying him a handsome amount of emeralds and you can hand him some equipment and assign it to guard a place. These comrades could then be brought on a ship as sailors. They can get experience and their combat skill will improve the longer they live. Another solution is to be able to put a bed on the ship. You could just respawn every time you die in an invasion on the ship. When you give up, you can just destroy the bed and abandon ship and spawn at the world spawn.

1. Hiring sailors would certainly be interesting, but I wanted this suggestion to focus on two things: How ships would work, and what would be done with the ships (i.e. the pirate and merchant ships). This is part of why I've left other potential sea-themed features out of this suggestion, such as cutlasses.

2. I personally think being able to set your spawnpoint on ships would break the current risk that would be in place when you go out to sea. The fact that ships would also be an easily movable and potentially fast method of shooting projectiles (cannonballs), having players able to respawn might make it unfairly easy to win a battle with someone when you're in a ship.

Another idea that could go along with this pirate theme would be the addition of new weapons. The swords already in minecraft are intended for knights, as they usually only carry swords that are straight and could be used for stabbing. The new kinds of swords I suggest would be cutlasses, the ones pirate use are curved and usually one sided. These cutlasses very good at being drawn and used for slashing. Because of this, cutlasses should deal high damage and able to damage multiple mobs at once, but at the expense of taking a while to charge up. This weapon would have the same enchantments as a regular sword. Another type of weapons that could be added along would be very early firearms. Since pirate captains carry pistols, we should also add it into Minecraft. Pistols would have to be obtained by killing pirate captains, which should be hard, as it took 20 cuts and 5 shots to kill Blackbeard. This new pistol weapon could then be loaded with gunpowder and a nugget and stored in inventory for later use. When used it should take 3 shots to kill a player at the effective range of 10 blocks, regardless of the amount or quality of armor on the player or mob. The reload time should take 10 seconds, more than long enough for a swordsman to kill you without resisting. To nerf it, it should not be able to fire in water. Another weapon that could be added would be a musket. A musket is only obtained by finding it in a buried treasure in a pirate cove with a 1 in 10 chance of generating with a musket. It will have an effective range of 20 blocks and it will be able to kill a player regardless of armor with 2 hits. Unlike the pistol, it will require 20 seconds to reload and a craftable item called a reloading rod with durability to reload. Like the pistol it will also use gunpowder and a nugget and will not fire underwater. These weapons would be enchanted with rifling, which improves accuracy, power, and piercing, which allows bullet to go through multiple mobs.

Like I've said before, I wanted this suggestion to focus on player-built ships and naturally-spawned ships. This is what I want this suggestion to be summed up as; I do not think other things such as new weapon types and cutlasses should be included in this suggestion because:

A. The suggestion is already very large.
B. Again, I want the suggestion to focus on purely ships, pirates, and merchant ships.

Another mechanic to add would be warfare with cannon. A cannon will fire the projectile like you described and explode, destroying the surrounding blocks based on blast resistance. It will have a 1 in 5 chance to set fire on the surrounding blocks, making it easier to destroy a wooden ship if not managed carefully.

I think this could potentially be overpowered. I think ship combat would be more balanced if you had to sneak onto the other person's ship in order to set it on fire.

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I think these things are stupid, unpleasant, unappealing. I think they evoke a romanticization of Eurocentric (not to be confused with European) imperialistic values and symbols, but most importantly — and again — are unappealing.

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I don't say this as an argument against your proposal, but I think it's fair you understand my standpoint beforehand. Now the argument.

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Two types of automatically generated ships are suggested in your proposal: Merchant and Pirate ships. Merchant ships seemingly just wander around, they come from nowhere and head to nowhere. They carry whalers in them, whalers who buy and sell whale by-products. They seem much more like whaling ships than merchant ships.

Both types of ships have cannons, and they interact with each other solely on the basis of the real life thing that their based upon. Pirates attack "merchant-whalers" with cannons, and "merchant-whalers" defend themselves with cannons. Players' ships are similarly attacked by pirates with cannons, and are expected to defend themselves with cannons as well. This is how ships interact: they attack each other with cannons.

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Nevermind all that was proposed in Part 1 and 2 of your proposal, Part 3 suggestions would change the ocean environment more dramatically than anything else you proposed. Pirate and Merchant ships would not be like villages, temples, or other pre-rendered structures in Minecraft. They would move; interact with players and other ships at large distances; they are very easily spotted as they're the only thing above sea level in the ocean; they totally shift their biome's dynamics. Adding pirates and merchants to oceans would pretty much force players to engage with the ocean biome as a Pirate & Whaling biome more than anything else, despite all crabs and anemones. Honestly, I don't think even people who actually "like" pirates would enjoy exploring what are basically "Pirate & Whaling biomes" all the time.

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It's overwhelming.

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I really enjoyed most of your Part 1 and even 2 proposals (except for the whaling part), but were Merchants and Pirates added to the game, the ocean would become even more unappealing to me than it is right now. I'd like to have more to do in the ocean, but I'd hate to be forced to engage with something I don't care about in the first place. Unless other players are really into pirates and whaling, I really don't think that in the long term such a change would increase average player's interests in the ocean.

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Sunken ships are different. They're like abandoned mineshafts, and zombies and skeletons. These are the ruins of something that has been, fragments of a glorious and intriguing Minecraft past, that is no more. They fit Minecraft's lore. They also fit Minecraft's gameplay appeal better than actual ships (which at least for me is much more about exploration than action).
Ghost ships carrying undead mobs would be fine by me as well. They fit within Minecraft's lore while at the same time providing some of the action based adventure wonder you seem to be getting at. If I were to propose them, they would only spawn at night, when it's a full moon, preferably nearby a shipwreck in deep oceans. Gameplay-wise, they should obviously be very hard to raid, but rewarding as well. Oh, and maybe they should completely disappear, as if they were never there, at the break of dawn! But I digress...

Even if Pirate and Merchant ships are made rare, the ocean would still feel like a "Pirate & Whaling biome", as we'd be constantly reminded of that whenever a ship is in sight. Also if they are made rare, people who would like fighting Pirates and trading with Merchants would become bored.

In conclusion, I really admire the thought and care you put into your proposal. It is very polished, well explained and consistent, and I really wish I didn't feel as negatively towards Part 3 as I do.

Rest assured my disagreement with Part 3 is as earnest as my agreement with (most of) Parts 1 and 2.

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I think these things are stupid, unpleasant, unappealing. I think they evoke a romanticization of Eurocentric (not to be confused with European) imperialistic values and symbols, but most importantly — and again — are unappealing.

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I don't say this as an argument against your proposal, but I think it's fair you understand my standpoint beforehand. Now the argument.

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Two types of automatically generated ships are suggested in your proposal: Merchant and Pirate ships. Merchant ships seemingly just wander around, they come from nowhere and head to nowhere. They carry whalers in them, whalers who buy and sell whale by-products. They seem much more like whaling ships than merchant ships.

Both types of ships have cannons, and they interact with each other solely on the basis of the real life thing that their based upon. Pirates attack "merchant-whalers" with cannons, and "merchant-whalers" defend themselves with cannons. Players' ships are similarly attacked by pirates with cannons, and are expected to defend themselves with cannons as well. This is how ships interact: they attack each other with cannons.

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Nevermind all that was proposed in Part 1 and 2 of your proposal, Part 3 suggestions would change the ocean environment more dramatically than anything else you proposed. Pirate and Merchant ships would not be like villages, temples, or other pre-rendered structures in Minecraft. They would move; interact with players and other ships at large distances; they are very easily spotted as they're the only thing above sea level in the ocean; they totally shift their biome's dynamics. Adding pirates and merchants to oceans would pretty much force players to engage with the ocean biome as a Pirate & Whaling biome more than anything else, despite all crabs and anemones. Honestly, I don't think even people who actually "like" pirates would enjoy exploring what are basically "Pirate & Whaling biomes" all the time.

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It's overwhelming.

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I really enjoyed most of your Part 1 and even 2 proposals (except for the whaling part), but were Merchants and Pirates added to the game, the ocean would become even more unappealing to me than it is right now. I'd like to have more to do in the ocean, but I'd hate to be forced to engage with something I don't care about in the first place. Unless other players are really into pirates and whaling, I really don't think that in the long term such a change would increase average player's interests in the ocean.

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Sunken ships are different. They're like abandoned mineshafts, and zombies and skeletons. These are the ruins of something that has been, fragments of a glorious and intriguing Minecraft past, that is no more. They fit Minecraft's lore. They also fit Minecraft's gameplay appeal better than actual ships (which at least for me is much more about exploration than action).
Ghost ships carrying undead mobs would be fine by me as well. They fit within Minecraft's lore while at the same time providing some of the action based adventure wonder you seem to be getting at. If I were to propose them, they would only spawn at night, when it's a full moon, preferably nearby a shipwreck in deep oceans. Gameplay-wise, they should obviously be very hard to raid, but rewarding as well. Oh, and maybe they should completely disappear, as if they were never there, at the break of dawn! But I digress...

Even if Pirate and Merchant ships are made rare, the ocean would still feel like a "Pirate & Whaling biome", as we'd be constantly reminded of that whenever a ship is in sight. Also if they are made rare, people who would like fighting Pirates and trading with Merchants would become bored.

In conclusion, I really admire the thought and care you put into your proposal. It is very polished, well explained and consistent, and I really wish I didn't feel as negatively towards Part 3 as I do.

Rest assured my disagreement with Part 3 is as earnest as my agreement with (most of) Parts 1 and 2.

(please overlook grammar mistakes, English is not my first language)

While I fundamentally disagree that Pirate & Merchant ships in the ocean biome would cause boredom or discouragement, I respect your opinion. I understand that it wouldn't be as fun for players who aren't interested in that. However, in some respects, they are less atrocious than Ocean Monuments; yes, they are more common, but at least they don't prevent players that don't want to fight from going in an area. The pirate ships move, and thus do not prohibit players from surviving peacefully in an area. I also do not see how ocean biomes would become "Merchant" or "Pirate" biomes; just as endermen don't turn the focus from every biome towards the End dimension, pirate & merchant ships wouldn't turn the focus of the ocean completely on themselves.

In my suggestions, the ocean danger is found on beaches and underwater. They encourage players to build ships that are big enough to not allow sharks or the undead to come onboard. However, if a player has successfully overcome these dangerous by building a ship, where is the danger? Hostile monsters wouldn't and couldn't spawn on ships, of course, and even then, the player could just light up the ship. Since the other form of transportation across long distances, the Nether, creates danger, there must be a similar (yet more tame) equivalent for sailing to keep the balance. Pirate ships are my solution to that.

I'm not quite sure what your problem is with whaling. Could you please elaborate? The technology scale of Minecraft wouldn't allow for the cruelty found in modern-day whaling. In fact, whaling used to be a very dangerous occupation; the whales fought back. I will make sure to add to Part 2 that whales would be able to jump over ships and damage players even if they are on the ship.

This is the most in-depth blockship suggestion I've ever seen. On the forums and ye ol' defunct GetSatisfaction. You put a lot of thought into how this can be realistically implemented. It should at least be considered!

I can see someone getting cheaty with the wool blocks - maybe it needs to detect a certain distance of air blocks between sails in order for the game to count it as a 'sail'. Stuff like that though is probably what devs figure out on their own, but suggestions are great for giving them things to turn to when they need it.

This is the most in-depth blockship suggestion I've ever seen. On the forums and ye ol' defunct GetSatisfaction. You put a lot of thought into how this can be realistically implemented. It should at least be considered!

I can see someone getting cheaty with the wool blocks - maybe it needs to detect a certain distance of air blocks between sails in order for the game to count it as a 'sail'. Stuff like that though is probably what devs figure out on their own, but suggestions are great for giving them things to turn to when they need it.

I was originally going to implement the wool block limitation as you mentioned, but I ran into an issue with it: some of the wool blocks are inevitably going to be blocked by the masts. Do you have a solution for this?

Also, if you're interested, steam66 started a project called the Community Revamp where we compile suggestions to implement as a giant, modular mod.

I was originally going to implement the wool block limitation as you mentioned, but I ran into an issue with it: some of the wool blocks are inevitably going to be blocked by the masts. Do you have a solution for this?

Also, if you're interested, steam66 started a project called the Community Revamp where we compile suggestions to implement as a giant, modular mod.

Just off the top of my head: reduce sailing efficiency by a certain percent for every side of a wool block not in contact with air blocks exposed to 'open' air, and that debuff ameliorated if it connects to wool blocks meeting that requirement. As to what 'open' air entails, I think MC already sort of has a way of dealing with that; something similar to how the game detects a villager 'house'.

Perhaps the only thing needed for the game to identify a sail would be if both sides of a wool block are at least 2 or 3 blocks from open air. Maybe even search laterally as well; if the only blocks along the length of the sail (searching crosswise from the ship) are wool and air, then it checks out as a valid sail.

That's one way anyway, from 5 minutes of thinking. Asking a non-programmer how to program something can get a bit silly sometimes, but I think at least the second paragraph is somewhat simple.

That link looks cool. Boats Evolved has been in suggestion collabs before, and people have expressed interest in making a mod, but I've never seen anything like a humongous suggestion-mod collab before. Very ambitious, if it's a real attempt to make a megamod. I'll check it out!